Cat and Mouse
by TinaMustDie
Summary: She plays the cat,and he plays the mouse,and the game isn't fun anymore.
1. Cat and Mouse

**Title:**Cat and Mouse 

**Author: **TinaMustDie

I don't own Avatar.

* * *

It's their game. 

Ozai hurts, Ursa runs, Azula always lies,and stupid,stupid Zuko always believes her.

They've played this game since they can remember and it never seems to get old.He just never learns.

Ozai hurts, Ursa runs, Azula always lies,and stupid,_stupid_ Zuko always believes her.

He looks around the dark room and decides that,in the end,he didn't have to. He pushes himself up against the wall and closes his eyes. Images flash and memories stir and there is _so much red. _He doesn't need to try to know he'll never be able to sleep again.

Ozai hurts, Ursa runs, Azula always lies and stupid,_stupid _Zuko always believes her.

When he finally stands up the air seems thicker. He takes one last look and then flees the smell of blood.

Ozai hurts, Ursa runs, Azula always lies and stupid,_stupid_ Zuko always believes her.

The moonlight streaming through the window illuminates the bath. He thinks for a fraction of a second that it's trying to bring his crimes to light. But then the thought is gone because _it just won't come off._

Ozai hurts, Ursa runs, Azula always lies and _poor,stupid _Zuko always believes her.

He scrubs for hours,till his skin is raw. And it's still not enough. He thinks it's ironic that even though _he killed her_,she's still winning. Still driving him insane. _And the blood just won't come off._

Ozai hurts, Ursa runs, Azula always lies, and stupid,_stupid _Zuko always believes her.

It's their dynamic,their game. And Zuko is so tired of playing.


	2. Close,But No Cigar

Title:Close,But No Cigar

Author:TinaMustDie

Originally this was just gonna be a oneshot. But then I wrote this while sitting in some little diner and thought,to hell with it!This is based on the scene from the Western Air Temple. This is in Katara's point of view in case anyone was confused.

* * *

She almost feels bad about it. 

She almost apologizes.

But then she sees his eyes,glowing as he sits in the dark,the fire playing shadows across his face.Feral.Harsh.Gold._Wrong_.

She almost feels bad.

She almost apologizes.

But then she sees those eyes.

And she's terrified all over again.


	3. Winter

Title:Winter

Author:TinaMustDie

Just another oneshot.

* * *

"This is the last time."She says. Her voice is shaking,but firm. It's full of determination. There's something akin to hope in that voice. It sounds every bit like the truth. 

He wants to believe her. He wants to believe her so badly.

But he knows better.

He wonders how many times he's answered the phone only to hear her sobbing on the other end. He wonders how many times he's come to pick her up from shabby nightclubs and cheap motels. He wonders how many time he's found her,clothes disheveled,make-up smeared,lying on the floor of some greasy place,with a hangover and a broken heart. He wonders when she'll end up a fourth page tragedy in the local newspaper.

He helps his sister sit up and feels her wrap bone-thin arms around his neck. He picks her up and pretends he doesn't see the track marks. The air outside the hotel is cold and he feels her shiver in his arms. Snowflakes fall on her sallow skin and frost her tangled hair. The stars shine indifferently and the walk to the car seems far too long. He unlocks the door and gently places her in the back seat,wrapping her in the blanket he keeps especially for her.

He slides into the driver's seat and starts the engine. The heater kicks in and he pulls out of the parking lot so he can take her to a rehab center she'll escape from in a week or two anyway.

She always calls and they both know he'll always come. He can't save her,but he'll be damned if he can't try.

"This is the last time."He hears her whisper from the backseat. But Zuko knows better.

_Azula always lies._


	4. Winter Part II

**Title:**Winter Part II

**Author:**TinaMustDie

Very happy with how things are turning out. Reviews!I'm touched. Right here. In my aorta.

* * *

Zuko finds that he is absolutely terrified of this room. Terrified of passing by it,terrified of thinking about it,terrified of what he'll find inside. He marvels at his bravery for even standing in the doorway.

This was _her_ room. He can see the window seat where she'd watch the rain. She used to ask him to watch with her. He remembers puffs of hot breath against the window panes and long,pale fingers tracing patterns on the glass. They'd sit there till the sun went down and the street lights outside threw sickly yellow light against their faces. He can still see the way the shadows splayed across her cheeks where the raindrops had settled on the window.

Her bed is made and untouched,the lavender sheets folded just so. Like they'd never jumped on it when their parents left them with Molly,the nanny they'd hated. The carpet is stained where he had spilled a glass of root beer during a rather heated debate on whose favorite wrestler would win in a steel cage match. Azula had won that argument when two days later the Fire Lord stole the championship belt from the Blue Spirit.

His eyes wander over to the closet doors where she'd painted sky blue flowers. Some of them were unfinished and he feels a wrench in his chest because he knows the reason she never got around to completing them.

It's like he can still feel the tips of her fingers ghosting across his face,stopping on the scar tissue. He can still hear her crying and he just can't convince her that _it wasn't her fault,dammit. _Like he's still fourteen and holding her hand while watching their mother walk down the hall and out of their lives. Like he's thirteen and shielding her from an arc of fire.

Memories tear through his mind and for a while it feels like he's drowning in them. Breathing deeply,he takes one last look at those desolate blue flowers and closes the door.

This can wait another day.


	5. How To Fight Boredom

Title:How To Fight Boredom

Author:TinaMustDie

I read The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell a few days ago and couldn't resist.

* * *

They let him escape once and awhile. Loosen the chains just a bit, conveniently have the guards change shifts, and he was gone. Azula took the utmost delight it hunting him back down. 

The funny part, she thinks, is that he knows she's manipulating him. But he keeps on trying, in the desperate hope that one day he'll win. What's even funnier is that they both know he never will. But Zuko denies this truth. Keeps it at bay. If he chooses not to acknowledge it, he still has faith. And that makes it all the more amusing.

Azula had always lived in a world of opulence. She was swaddled in silk and raised in gold. From her earliest days she had never wanted for anything, and if she did, somebody died. Today, she sits on an elegant throne and plays God, the only part she was ever meant for.

The world was her playground, and her brother was her favorite toy.


	6. Burden

Title:Burden  
Author:TinaMustDie

Terribly sorry this took so long. Am such a lazy-ass.

* * *

Zuko was something to be in awe of. Complexity alone made him a fascinating creature.

Mai knows this, and Zuko wonders if it's his unstable, and sometimes chaotic, grip on himself that makes her love him.

In a way, Zuko thinks she's kind of like the knives she throws. Quick, cold, aimed for your heart. She's as beautiful as shining steel spinning through the air, her apathy cuts as deep as any dagger. She knows just where to hit to hurt you the most and her marksmanship is perfect. She is a weapon, self-made and searching for something, _anything_, that makes her happy. Something that interests her. Something that proves she's alive. It's that desire, buried under years of self-restraint, that makes her human. She is lost without it.

She sleeps in the house a few miles away, dreamless. He'll find her crying, terrified he'd gone for good, a few hours later.

The air smells of sand on skin, mingled with his sweat. A slight wind carries the faint odor of the sea towards him. The ground is soft and biting, his shins buried in the sand. He sits on the beach, letting the summer sunshine seep into his bones, warming him from the outside in.

Zuko has never loved her less.


End file.
